McCaskill backs gay marriage

Sen. Claire McCaskill has become the second sitting U.S. senator in less than two weeks to endorse gay marriage, days before the Supreme Court considers major two cases on the issue.

“I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love,” McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, wrote on her Tumblr page on Sunday. “While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.”

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McCaskill headlined the post with a Bible verse, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear cases on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

A swing-state Democrat, McCaskill won reelection in November and won’t face voters again until 2018. She has long threaded a needle on gay marriage. While making a failed run for governor in 2004, she said she opposed gay marriage while also opposing a state constitutional amendment to ban it, arguing a provision in state law was sufficient.

McCaskill cited her experiences with gay friends and family as the cause of her conversion.

“My views on this subject have changed over time, but as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality,” she wrote. “Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality.”

McCaskill, who told POLITICO earlier this month she was “thinking about” her gay marriage stance, predicted she would be on the right side of history. “Good people disagree with me,” the senator wrote. “On the other hand, my children have a hard time understanding why this is even controversial. I think history will agree with my children.”